4.29.2012

Starfall

Another good (but packed) day.

I spent the morning getting caught up on some stuff I'd been slacking on (yes, including the blog), and then around noon-thirty Nathan dropped me off down at the convention center for Stumptown, where I met up with my Katie, and good times were had by all.  One of the things I specifically wanted to do was sit in on a panel on digital painting, and thus we did so.  Which brings us to this:
Smudge Tooled

No, it is not particularly exciting.  But what it is, is me putting into use one of the things I learned during the panel.  Well not so much "learned" as "was reminded of".  See, I have this bad habit of getting into a rut with what I do with how I color; I know what works and I stick to it.  Don't get me wrong- I like my vaguely-cel-shaded-style, but sometimes I forget that I don't have to work that way.  Hence I busted out a smudgy sphere.

Anyway, we eventually wandered back across the river and into the rock gym, where I pushed the hell out of myself and tried a 5.10+ (couldn't solve it without cheating- yet) which schooled me on the importance of keeping your core tight.  But what was super the most exciting was that I tried a 5.8 overhang (ie, on a wall angled more than 90 degrees) called Starfall.  Now, what you need to understand is that I'd done Starfall before.  A couple of times, actually.  Failed it a couple of times, too.  Solving that route had involved a lot of swearing and brute strength, but I hadn't tried it since I started the technique clinic, and I wanted to see if I'd actually made any improvement in my climbing.

Holy stars, have I ever.

I'm not saying it was "easy", but it felt good.  I didn't feel like I was fighting the wall, I felt like my body was doing what it was supposed to be doing, and that I was actually flowing instead of muscling; I didn't completely deplete my strength getting to the top.  It was a fabulous feeling, and I was super, super triumphant- and super glad Katie was there to prove I wasn't making it up.

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